Basically what this prophecy is saying is that the people of Israel will have to wait for seventy weeks of years to pass before they will be fully reestablished as a nation, that is, before the kingdom of Israel will be restored to even greater glory that they had in the past.
The countdown begins with the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. This decree was made by king Cyrus as recorded in Ezra 1:2-4.
The prophecy states that after the decree Jerusalem will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, in times of trouble, in seven sevens or 49 years. Then after sixty-two more sevens the Anointed One would come.
This prophecy is the main reason people were looking for the Christ at the time if Jesus' birth. The people of Israel had been counting down the days for their redeemer, but as this prophecy states, he would be cut off and have nothing. This clearly refers to the crucifixion and ascension of Jesus Christ.
The prophecy calls the Anointed One, the ruler, because when the Anointed One comes, he would come as the King of Israel.
Matthew 21:5
"Say to the Daughter of Zion, ‘See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.'" (NIV)
It was this 'official' arrival of Jesus Christ to Jerusalem that fulfilled the coming of the Anointed One here in Daniel 9:26. It was the custom of the Romans to write your crime on a sign and hang this sign above the victims head so that all who passed by might see what happens to a person who commits that rime. Above Jesus' head, on the cross, was a sign that said: Above his head they placed the written charge against him: This is Jesus, The King of the Jews. Matthew 27:37
Now before the kingdom will be restored to Israel the seventh week must pass. A very careful reading of this prophecy shows that the seven sevens and the sixty-two sevens are continuos, but there is a break in the continuity of an undisclosed length before the start of the seventieth week. We will examining this in the next two studies.
